Nantucket Genealogies

In 1754, the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania entered into a dispute over the ownership of what is today the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. At the time, Virginia's claim, which was encompassed within the boundaries of Augusta County, embraced all of Pennsylvania west of Laurel Hill and included the present-day counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene, Washington, and parts of Allegheny and Beaver. The dispute raged over the course of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War and was eventually settled in 1784. The first of the two excerpts from the Pennsylvania Archives reprinted here, Virginia Claims to Land in Western Pennsylvania, is a complete list of Virginia land entries in the aforementioned Pennsylvania counties between 1779 and 1780. For each of the 1,300 entries we are given the date of the entry, the name(s) of the parties to the transaction, and occasional references to subsequent transfers of grants, the amount of acreage, and a landmark indicating where the land was situated. The second excerpt, An Account of the Donation Lands of Pennsylvania, concerns the March 1780 statute enacted by the state legislature granting land in western Pennsylvania to the soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line who served in the Continental Army. The 3,000 members of the Pennsylvania Line entitled to a donation are identified by name, rank, regiment, acreage awarded, and, sometimes, whether the individual claimed the land, was killed in action, relinquished his right to the land, etc. The list of eligible soldiers is preceded by an informative history of the donation lands.